On memory lane Lucinda O’Sullivan
Afew metres from Bray’s Dart station is Albert Walk, a dinky Victorian laneway, which, with its 19th-century houses, has always been home to little artisan shops, cafes and businesses.
I can still remember getting off the train as a child, with my parents, and running through it hoping to get quickly to the other end of Bray’s wonderful Victorian promenade where the ice-creams, amusement arcades and slot machines were. Bray really has two “faces”: on the one hand it’s a very busy business town and on the other it’s a wonderful seaside spot with lots of bars and restaurants.
I hadn’t been in Albert Walk for years until I visited Nine, a cafe-restaurant, with a lovely courtyard area for fine weather, doing contemporary daytime food, the brunch-lunch sort of thing, and dinner on Friday and Saturdays. Matthew Forde Connolly is at the helm, with Ciara O’Leary, who started out her career working in Dublin’s lamented Thornton’s on the Green when it was two-star Michelin.
Having previously run a reasonably priced autumnal three-course set menu and a Christmas Feast menu for December, both of which were the subject of much favourable chit chat in the Bray and Greystones circles, I was eager to check it out for myself.
With spring in the air on our visit, they had revealed a new dinner menu, a la carte this time around, as they want people to be able to drop in for a plate or two and a couple of glasses of wine. A friendly young man welcomed and settled us into a comfortable table in the smart little bistrostyle downstairs room which featured rather nice artwork.
We were quickly impressed by the menu’s offerings, starting with nibbles (€4-€4.50) which sported the rather expensive handmade Yemeni Sidr honey with pistachio bread and butter, and Sicilian nocellara olives with smoked almonds.
The wine list got full marks, too, as I’m getting a tad frugal in that regard these days. Here they have lots of interesting wines — orange, rosé, red and white — by the glass from €8 and by the bottle from €30, plus Aperol, vermut or white port spritzes (€8.50/€9/€9), Normandy ciders, sparkling wine, sherry and dessert wines. On top of that we were able to have Torres Natureo 0.0 2021, a de-alcoholised rosé, by the glass at €6. “Here’s to summer,” we said.
Vegan friend Rena started with a very pleasant dish of braised endive scattered with gremolata and candied walnuts (€11), while I had artichoke carpaccio, drizzled around with balsamic and topped with a fluff of dry rocket, lemon and Pecorino (€12), the notion of which I liked very much — and it was nice — but I couldn’t get any sense of lemon and it could have done with more than one little sliver of Pecorino. Just those little elements make all the difference.
Mains (€24-€38) included crispy pork belly with apple, carrot puree, squash, charcoal, aioli and fondant potato, and, at the upper end of the price range, a 9oz dry aged beef ribeye with cep puree, braised spinach and garlic creamed potato. Rena loved her miso glazed aubergine (€24) with halloumi, tofu caviar and labneh. I was happy with my meaty monkfish (€32) on a welcome bed of creamed potato surrounded by a musseland-vegetable broth topped with what was described as a vadouvan foam — the deciding factor in my choice. I love the French curry-style vadouvan spicing but, while there was a foam, I couldn’t get any sense of “spices” in the dish, which overall I enjoyed, but if they’re going to say vadouvan, maybe it could be dialled up a bit for the curry heads.
I finished up with a delicious dessert of chocolate mousse with torched marshmallow, hazelnut crumb and sour cherry (€7.50), but if you’re more inclined towards fromage, they also have a decent Irish cheeseboard at €14.
With four glasses of 0.0 wine (€6 each) and service our bill came to €121.55.
Nine is a chic quietly ambitious little spot clearly aiming at making a name for themselves, and indeed I hope that they do.
With positive chatter coming through the foodie grapevine, our reviewer was eager to check out Nine on Bray’s Albert Walk
Nine lucindaosullivan.com